Products for cleaning hard surfaces are widely available on the market. These products are used for two purposes, the first being to clean soil from the surface and the second being to leave the surface with an aesthetically pleasing finish e.g. spot-free or shiny. However products available on the market often require rinsing with water after use. Typically when the water dries from the surface water-marks, smears or spots are left behind. These water-marks, it is believed may be due to the evaporation of water from the surface leaving behind deposits of minerals which were present as dissolved solids in the water, for example calcium, magnesium and sodium ions and salts thereof or may be deposits of water-carried soils, or even remnants from a cleaning product, for example soap scum. This problem is often exacerbated by some cleaning compositions which modify the surface during the cleaning process in such a way that after rinsing, water forms discrete droplets or beads on the surface instead of draining off. These droplets or beads dry to leave consumer noticeable spots or marks known as water-marks. This problem is particularly apparent when cleaning ceramic, steel, plastic, glass or painted surfaces. A means of solving this problem, known in the art is to dry the water from the surface using a cloth or chamois before the water-marks form. However this drying process is time consuming and requires considerable physical effort.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,759,980 (Blue Coral) describes a composition for cleaning cars which is described to eliminate the problem of water-marks. The composition described comprises a surfactant package comprising a silicone-based surfactant and a polymer which is capable of bonding to a surface to make it hydrophilic. However the Applicants have found that the polymers described in this document are removed from the surface during rinsing of the product from the surface. Hence since the surface hydrophilicity is allegedly provided by the composition as described in the patent and the composition is completely removed from the surface after the first rinse, the alleged hydrophilicity is also removed. The result is that the benefit provided by the composition is lost when the surface is rinsed.
DE-A-21 61 591 also describes a composition for cleaning cars wherein the surface is made hydrophilic by application of animo-group containing copolymers such as polyermic ethyleneimines, polymeric dimethyl aminoethylacrylate or methacrylate or mixed polymerisates. However as with the composition described above the polymers are also rinsed off in the first rinse of the car, thereby removing any benefit the polymers could have provided.
It is thus the object of the present invention to provide a process of cleaning a surface without the subsequent appearance of water-marks, even after the first and/or subsequent rinses. The process involves the steps of contacting a surface with a specially designed cleaning composition and then rinsing the surface with purified water to reduce the appearance of water spots. Furthermore, the above benefit provided by the process of the present invention is durable meaning that the benefit can still be perceived after successive rinses, including after intentional rinsing by the user or by rain water. By intentional rinsing it is meant rinsing the surface using a suitable rinsing device such as a hose, shower, bucket, cloth, sponge.
By the term ‘surface’ it is meant those surfaces typically found in houses like kitchens and bathrooms, e.g., floors, walls, tiles, windows, sinks, baths, showers, WCs, fixtures and fittings made of different materials like ceramic, porcelain, enamel, vinyl, no-wax vinyl, linoleum, melamine, glass, any plastics, plastified wood, metal, especially steel and chrome metal, varnished or sealed surfaces and especially, the exterior surfaces of a vehicle, e.g. painted, plastic or glass surfaces and finishing coats.